Ellen Page. Ted Cruz. Iowa State Fair. Go.

On August 21, Ted Cruz visited the state fair in Iowa, where he was making some pork chops when he received a question from the crowd: Ellen Page shouted a query about the treatment of queer people in America.

Where it went from there is of little surprise to anyone, but the debate was recorded for posterity.

The actress was at the fair as part of her series Gaycation with Ellen Page, filmed by Vice. Wearing a baseball hat and sunglasses in an attempt to be incognito, she said to Cruz, “A lot of religious people also used the Bible to defend segregation, to defend slavery. I think religious freedom is so important and so crucial for all religions. LGBT people are worried they will directly be discriminated against.”

Of course, the candidate used religious freedom as a cover for taking away queer rights, telling her in response, “No one has the right to force someone else to abandon their faith and their conscience. Imagine, hypothetically, you had a gay florist and imagine two evangelicals wanted to get married and they decide, ‘You know what, I disagree with your faith and I don’t want to provide flowers.’”

Which is funny, because I’m pretty sure that a gay florist would still provide flowers regardless of this whatever religion the patron happened to be…but you go on believing that, Senator Cruz. Whatever argument you need to help justify Christians being allowed to refuse service to queer couples.

Of course, after the brief exchange, he felt the need to state his piece about the impromptu moment. According to the Independent, he said, “What we’re seeing right now is this liberal fascism and intolerance. Their object is to persecute, to punish, to fine any Bible-following Christian or believer that believes in the biblical definition of marriage as the union of one man and one woman.”

Oh, where to begin…

Let’s start with the “biblical definition of marriage.” So, if we’re going to allow the biblical definition to be a thing, when are we going to legalize polygamy? Many biblical figures have multiple wives and concubines.

Then there’s fascism. Hello Godwin’s Law! Just because liberals have this crazy belief that everyone should have basic rights doesn’t make them fascists; I know, that’s just wacky. But, there’s this false belief that seems to be sweeping through the far right: that Christianity is under attack.

Yeah, that’s right, the majority religion in the US is under attack. Thank you Fox “News,” for fanning those flames with your fake stories about the so-called war on Christmas.

Here’s the real irony of this situation: Cruz also told the conservative news source Newsmax that “he is commanded by Scripture to ‘love everybody.’”

Now, hold your laughter for a moment.

Apparently his version of love is incredibly different from what I’m sure Christ had in mind, if you were to go by his teachings. Yet Cruz, being Christian, believes that he is following what Jesus intended.

By the way, Senator, the bible explicitly states that Jesus hated figs, but there’s absolutely nothing that says he ever condemned anyone for being gay.

Of course, Cruz is known for being totally rational and in control of his feelings when it comes to gay rights. I mean, he was totally a good sport after marriage equality was considered the law of the land; he had nothing but good things to say.

He’s also had some choice words about marriage equality, and of course “traditional” marriage. The truth is, there isn’t a whole lot of evidence that Christ said anything about being gay, let alone anything bad . The idea of conservative politicians cherry-picking vague parts of the bible to defend some pretty abhorrent behavior is appalling.

Jimmy Carter said it best: “I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don’t see that gay marriage damages anyone else.”

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